My Hug
by Elise Sawyer
Summary: A His/Her/Their style story seen through the eyes of a young patient and her experiences while being treated at Sacred Heart.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone, this is my first fanfic...ever, so bear with me. I appreciate all reviews/comments as they show me that you at least took the time to read :) I love the His/Her/Their story episodes, and I always wondered what it would be like to see all the antics from a patient's point of view. I remember MASH did an episode like that and I loved it, so it sort of inspired me to write this. Thoughts are in italics, and are supposed to be like the voice overs in the show. In traditional His/Her/Their story fashion J.D starts the narrating and passes it off, and won't get it back until the end. I hope you like it :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Scrubs, blah blah blah. Now on with the story!**

It was a typical day at Sacred Heart Hospital. The morning had just begun, and J.D entered the hospital with a cheery, yet vacant expression on his face, which meant that he was lost in his thoughts again, as was often the case with him. _When you've been a doctor for as long as I have, you tend to forget sometimes what it must be like for the patients. As doctors we tend to take some things for granted. Most of the fear that we feel goes away when we know what we're dealing with, especially if it's easily treatable. But for the people we treat, it can be a much scarier situation. I wonder what it must be like for some of the patients who come through this place._

After grabbing the appropriate chart, he continued down the hall and walked into a nearby room inhabited by a young woman lying in a bed in the usual patient attire. She had medium length light brown hair and a small figure, appearing to be around 14 years old, but who had just celebrated her 19th birthday. She smiled at J.D as he walked in, though it was a sort of nervous smile, done so more out of fear than out of sentiment. J.D greeted her in his usual way. "Hello! I'm Doctor John Dorian." He then looked at her chart and read, "Ms…Hug? Whoa, that's really your last name?!" The young woman's expression then changed from slightly anxious to slightly annoyed. _Oh here we go again! Why does everyone seem so shocked at my last name! Seriously, if one more person walks through this door and comments on it even one more time I swear I'm gonna… _J.D began to read from her chart again. "I see you were admitted for severe abdominal pain. We'll run the usual tests and we'll do what we can."

"Thanks," the woman replied. J.D then left the room, but turned around and came back in a second later. "So your last name is really Hug?! That's so cool!" He was really having a ball with this one, as only J.D could. _Oh boy, here we go again. It's ok, just try to sidestep the issue. No bid deal_, she thought to herself. "It's not as cool as you'd think," she said. "I was made fun of all the time when I was a kid. It got old fast."

"Really?" asked J.D. "I love hugs. I hug pretty much everyone." She then gave him a strange look, as if to ask, "What are you, nuts?" He broke the silence by saying "Well, you know, in a completely platonic way…" When she continued to give him a blank stare, he excused himself by saying, "I'm going to have these tests run now. I'll be back later with the results, Ms…"

"You can just call me Rachel," she said. "No need for formality here," she said, only half seriously, as she could tell J.D was going to have a field day with her last name if she didn't put a stop to it quickly. No need to excite him further.

"Alright then, Rachel. See you in a bit." He left the room, leaving Rachel with a rare moment of solitude. She began to reflect on all the reasons she was there. She was beginning to drift off into her own little world, when she was suddenly interrupted with an unwanted intrusion. J.D was back, and he wasn't alone. He was accompanied by a man and a woman who looked to be in their early 50s. _Great. Why did my parents have to get here so soon? _She thought miserably. The silence was finally broken by J.D himself. "It looks like you won't be alone after all!" he said cheerfully. "I've informed your parents about the situation and they've decided to keep you company for a while." He smiled again, thinking that his new patient would be thrilled at the thought of not being alone, but her expression was one of disappointment, not relief. Catching this, he added nervously, "Well, I'm off," and left the room. Rachel lay motionless and neither looked at nor spoke to either of her parents. Her father broke the silence.

"Hey there, Rache," he said enthusiastically. "We got here as soon as we could." _No kidding, considering I was just admitted about two minutes ago._ "Yeah, I can tell," she said, trying to muster a smile. Rachel's mother then chimed in. "Are you bummed?" she asked. _What kind of a stupid question is that? I hate it when she uses that word.. By goodness can't anybody give me a little space?! _She opened her mouth to answer when an annoying, high-pitched version of Mozart's requiem pierced the air. Her father then looked at his cell phone. "Sorry, sweetie, I have to take this," he said and excused himself from the room. Rachel then proceeded to answer her mother's question, although she really didn't see the need to. "Honestly, well, eh, I don't know. I guess I'd rather be back at home than lying around here, but I guess that really wouldn't change things," she said, trying to create a sense of apathy. Her mother nodded and said, "Well, you just hang in there, then. I hate to cut our visit short, but I better go see where your father went."

"Bye," Rachel said, relieved. Rachel sighed to herself as her mother exited the room. _Phew. I got out of that one easily enough. Now I finally have some time to myself. _She glanced around the room thoughtfully. It was pretty small, but suited her needs, she reasoned. She looked to her right a spied a small table with a box of saltine crackers resting on it. She picked up the box and examined it. _Who could have possibly left these here? _

"Hey, are those my saltines?" Came a voice from the doorway. Turk was standing there in his green scrubs and looking like he had just run a mile.

"Uh, yeah, I guess so," said a confused Rachel. She handed the box to Turk. "You put them in here?"

"Actually, J.D did," he said. "We were playing a round of 'Find the Saltine' and he accidentally left them in here.

_J.D? Who's tha- oh, he must mean Dr. Hugsalot. John Dorian – J.D. Got it._

She continued to give Turk a confused sort of look, to which Turk replied with "Dr. Dorian and I have been friends since college," he said. "He's a little quirky, but man, I don't know where I'd be without that guy. I'm Turk, by the way."

"I'm Rachel."

"Wait, are you that Hug girl?" he squealed out in excitement. Rachel wanted to be angry at this, but instead softened, gave a little smile and said, "Yep, that's me."

"J.D just told me about you! He's in love with your last name; I could have sworn I saw him drift as soon as he told me about it.

"Err…drift?"

"Yeah, sometimes he drifts off into his fantasy world and thinks about the most random things. It's amusing to watch. I'm pretty sure he did because when he came to he said "I'm going to need much bigger arms."

Rachel laughed a little. "Sounds like it. I'm pretty sure I can figure out what he might have been thinking, too."

"Well," said Turk, "I'm a surgeon, so our paths may not cross again, I don't know, but I just want to let you know that J.D. is a great doctor. He'll take care of you, no worries. Later." Rachel watched Turk leave the room. _Find the saltine? I wonder how you play?_

Rachel started to feel better about her situation. She could tell that the doctors here cared a great deal and that she didn't have anything to be afraid of, well, except for her parents, of course. They were bound to make her feel horrible in some way. She leaned back in her bed and gently closed her eyes. _Everything is going to be just fine…_

Rachel awoke to the sound and gentle touch of someone waking her. "Wake up, sleepy head." She opened her tired eyes to see a nurse standing there. It was Carla. "Good morning," she said. Rachel looked bewildered. _Morning already? But I only just-_

"You were out for quite a while," Carla told her. "You must have been exhausted. I'm not surprised. Your family came back to see you again yesterday, but they didn't want to wake you. I didn't want to either, but I was just wondering if you would like any breakfast. If not, you can just go back to sleep if you want. There's no rush." Half-dazed and still a little drowsy, Rachel hesitated, and then finally said, "Yeah, ok, I'll take it."

"Alright, I'll be right back," Carla said warmly. "My name is Carla by the way if you need anything," she said, and left the room. Rachel slowly began to come out of her foggy state. Her attitude towards this strange place continued to improve. Carla returned a few minutes later carrying a tray with assorted breakfast items, only this time she wasn't alone.

"You're parents are back," she said. As soon as she had said this both of Rachel's parents clamored into the room. Carla laid the tray of assorted breakfast items in front of Rachel. "Here you go," she said. "I'll be right outside if you need anything else, and your test results should be back soon. I'll send in Doctor Dorian as soon as they are ready." Rachel nodded. "Thanks, Carla."

"Don't sweat it," Carla replied smiling. "It's ok to be a little intimidated. A lot of people are nervous when they first enter a hospital. But let me just tell you that the staff here is great. Your doctor is one of the most caring people I've ever met, and he won't let anything bad happen to you if he's got anything to do with it." Rachel gave a weak, yet confident smile at these words. She nodded again and Carla knew she had done her job. "I'll be around," she said, and left Rachel to deal with her parents yet again. She turned to face them for the first time since they came in the room. She greeted them as warmly as she could. "Hey guys," she said. "Sorry about yesterday. I was exhausted."

"It's ok, we understand," her mother said. She was holding a cloth bag with a dragon printed on the front of it. She eased over and handed it to Rachel. "Here," she said. Rachel carefully lifted the bag open, and gave a look of pure joy at seeing the contents inside. She pulled out a couple of stuffed animals, a notebook and pen, some colored bracelets, and a few other things that kept the smile plastered on Rachel's face. Rachel finally turned her attention away from the bag and its contents to face her parents again. "We knew you'd be bored, and probably a little lonely, so your mother put together some of your favorite things for you," her father said. "You should be grateful." Rachel grimaced slightly at this. _Alright, well aside from that snide little comment, things are turning out better than I thought they would. My parents are being really sweet today and I'm not going to pass that up. _"Thanks, guys," she said sincerely, and reached out to give her parents a hug. _Maybe I was wrong about them after all. _

"Oh, come off it," her father snapped. "You're not really thankful for all the hard work that we put in for this; driving over here to see you only to have you fall asleep on us, putting together this nice bag of trash for you, giving up our day just to be patronized."

Rachel was horrified, though not surprised, by this behavior. She hated it when he did this. It was like Jekyll and Hyde with him. Sometimes he would be this really sweet, supportive sensitive father who would look after her no matter what she needed, and other times he would be this overcritical and cynical jerk. There was no way to predict which way it would go. She wasn't sure what caused it, either, though she suspected it had something to do with his grueling job as an attorney.

"I – I'm s-sorry," she stammered, starting to cry. "I d-didn't mean to-"

"Oh yeah, you never MEAN to, but you're always a disrespectful, good for nothing little shi-"

"CHRISTOPHER, STOP DEMEANING OUR DAUGHTER!" her mother bellowed. Both father and daughter turned and gaped in awe at the furious woman, who continued to fume even after her husband had stopped belittling the terrified patient. He then rounded on her and said "You always side with her. You always have. You have no respect for the man of the house. NO REPSECT!" And at that he took his arm and knocked Rachel's untouched breakfast tray clattering to the floor. Pancakes, sausage and orange juice went flying everywhere with a horrifying metallic crash. Rachel's father then left the room with no apology and no sign of guilt or remorse for what he had done. Rachel and her mother just looked at each other with horror and upset on both their faces. Rachel was afraid that something like this would happen, and it appeared that her worst nightmares had come true. Carla then came running to the door in a flash of urgency. "What happened in here?!" She demanded. Rachel and her mother exchanged nervous glances at this seemingly simple question. "Umm, my father sort of…lost his temper," Rachel attempted to explain.

Carla looked furious. "Well, what happened? What did he say? Did he hurt you?

"No…" Rachel said, "He was quite calm, actually, that is, until, well," she motioned toward the contents of her uneaten breakfast on the floor. "Until he did that."

"If there's one thing worse than temperamental patients, its temperamental family members," said an exasperated Carla. "But don't you worry about a thing. I'll send somebody over to clean this up. Do you want me to send up another tray?"

"No, that's ok," Rachel implored. "I'm not really hungry anymore."

"I understand," Carla said, still on high alert. "Are you going to be ok in here?"

Rachel looked at her mom, who smiled nervously. "Yeah, I think so. I'll be fine."

"Ok…" Carla said, not sounding completely convinced of this, but as there was nothing more she could do to remedy the situation, she said "I'll be back later," and left the room. Rachel then looked at her mother.

"Was I disrespectful to him or something?" she asked worriedly. "I really am grateful for the bag."

"I know you are, sweetie," Rachel's mom consoled. "You know how your father gets sometimes. He needs to be put on a tighter leash."

"Yeah, really," Rachel agreed. "I just hope I didn't do anything that warranted any of this."

"You didn't, believe me, you didn't." her mom assured her. "Trust me; there isn't anything you could do to deserve that kind of treatment from anyone, let alone your own father." Rachel's mom sighed and looked at her watch. "Speaking of which, I better go find him. Who knows who he could be harassing now." Mrs. Hug leaned over to her daughter, gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, said "I love you," and left. Rachel then let out one deep, exasperated sigh accompanied by painful tears. _I knew this would happen. Why did I go on expecting anything less? _Tears continued to stream down the young woman's face. Her newly acquired sense of security and confidence had been stripped away in a matter of seconds. Rachel grabbed the bag that her mother had brought, reached inside and pulled out a couple of tissues. She wiped her eyes as she felt her head begin to throb. _There's no way out now…_

Rachel's thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of a newcomer. A tall man wearing a dark blue maintenance uniform and an irritated expression on his face entered the room, looking from the crying girl in the bed to the tray of spilled breakfast items lying lifeless on the floor. The Janitor glared at Rachel for over a minute before finally speaking to her…

**I hope you are enjoying it so far :) Please review! Thanks.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Finally updated :) Sorry it took so long for those of you who have read chapter 1 and were eagerly waiting the next installment ;) As this is still my first story I'm trying the best I can to do a good job and not rush things, so if things take a little longer that is probably why. I only got two reviews for chapter 1, but they were both positive so that makes me feel encourages to keep going with this. Yeah, ok, enough of me yapping. Here you go :)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Scrubs. Yes, I think we get that now. Onwards we go!**

The Janitor continued to glare at the terrified patient with contempt

The Janitor continued to glare at the terrified patient with utter contempt. After a few moments, he finally said, "You're lucky you're bedridden," with a cold roughness in his voice. "Because if you weren't, I would have to torture you until your brain snapped itself in half."

"I wasn't the one who did this," Rachel said boldly, though uncertain of where the boldness might have come from, as she was absolutely terrified. The Janitor laughed lightly in disbelief.

"I don't see anyone else here," he said. "Unless it was the monkey people. They can turn themselves invisible at will, you know. They've been following me around for years, always lurking, always waiting, until they finally POUNCE!" He gave a sudden lunging motion that made Rachel flinch.

_Ok, it's obvious this guy's insane and there's no way to reason with him logically. The best thing to do now is play along. Hmm, what should I say…?_

"No, it wasn't the monkey people; it was the…super ninja fighting squad. Yeah, they just came in here, and in the blink of an eye they knocked my trey to the ground and left. I tried to stop them, but well, you know. I'm kind of chained to this bed."

The Janitor looked intrigued. Not once in all the time he worked there had somebody actually played along with his charades. For once he was at a loss of what to say or do. He then finally decided to concede. "Fair enough," he said, and held up his hands in defeat. "I can plainly see that it's not your fault. Those super ninja fighters are merciless."

Rachel was shocked at his response. _Whoa, that actually worked? Wow, this guy's crazier than I thought. Maybe I should come clean. But if I do that, he might lash out…eh, it's worth the risk._

"Actually, it was really my father who did it... and he's neither a monkey nor a ninja. He's really just an irate attorney who has trouble keeping his temper in check. He really is a good guy at heart, but sometimes when the stress gets to him he tends to… well; act out his anger in inappropriate ways. I know he doesn't mean it, but sometimes it-"

"What, so you lied to me just now about the ninja fighters?" Asked the Janitor, who cut her off. "Just because you said that I was planning on setting special traps around the hospital, but no, it just turned out to be one big lie! You should be ashamed!" he boomed.

"Everybody lies sometimes," said Rachel casually. "Besides, you didn't really think there were ninjas running around here, did you? Surely you would have seen them." Again, the Janitor was surprised by this revelation. Yes, everyone did lie at least sometimes, especially him, who never squandered an opportunity to spread falsehoods about his family history or his abilities to control people's minds. As for the ninjas, he at least wanted to believe they were real, as he had finished his daily work routine of pretending to clean the hospital followed by torturing various employees, though he doubted anyone, let alone some random patient, would play along with his antics for this long. After thinking this over in his head, he paused and then finally said, "Fair enough. You win again. You are a worthy adversary…random girl patient."

"You can call me Rachel," she said, astonished that she had somehow managed to calm him down.

He shook his head. "One of the nurses I torture is named Rachel. Or Jennifer…Andrea…Mary Sue? I don't really remember. As you can see I'm not very good with first names. And I really can't get away with calling you Random Girl Patient either. There's too many of those already. What's you're last name? Maybe I can make something out of that."

Rachel cringed at this question, but finally gave her answer. "Hug. Not even joking."

The Janitor laughed out loud at this. "Hug? Are you serious? Ha! I bet Dorian just loves having a patient named _Hug_!"

"He does," she said. "It's getting rather annoying, although I am used to it. Still, you wouldn't believe how many times people misspell it. They always add an extra g. And sometimes they even mispronounce it! It's unbelievable."

"People are idiots," said the Janitor. Rachel nodded in agreement. "You have no idea how easy it is to trip up people around here. And when I say trip up, I mean I literally trip them up. Certain people may slip on a wet floor from time to time or, oh I don't know, get tiny wheels installed on the bottoms of their shoes when they're looking the other way. They never learn from it either. Pulling stunts like these may seem pointless to some but hey, it gets me through the day," he said heroically while grinning a little. "But I also manage to outsmart a lot of the people here too. Especially Dorian, he's fun to mess with. Started torturing him his second day of work, and it's been like that ever since. Wouldn't have it any other way."

Rachel smiled at this. Though there was no doubt that the Janitor's sanity was clearly in question, Rachel couldn't help but laugh at his witty anecdotes. At least talking to him was better than her father spilling food everywhere in response to a simple thank you. The Janitor then took a step closer towards Rachel. "So, what are you in here for, anyway," he asked.

"Don't know yet. But they're running tests to try to figure out what it is.

"Yeah well, hopefully it isn't life threatening. It would be a shame to lose the only other intelligent being in this dump."

"Ah, well, thank you," said Rachel with a hint of a smile. She then decided to push her luck. "So tell me," she said playfully, "Who's the other intelligent being here, then?" The Janitor gave a stern look.

"You did not just ask me that."

"I did," she said, confidence wavering now. _Damn it! You just had to open your big mouth, didn't you?! _And then the Janitor said what neither himself nor Rachel had expected.

"I'm going to make you regret ever asking a question where the answer is so obvious that it is literally staring you directly in the face." Rachel gave a surprised little snort and a look of flickering fear. Surely he could come up with a better response than that. Still, she decided not to say anything further to anger the clearly insane man standing before her. There was an awkward pause before Rachel decided to try to rectify the situation. "I was just joking, you know."

"Sure, you say that now," he said, though he knew she was being honest. He then eyed the dragon adorned bag Rachel's mother had brought her. "What's in the bag of tricks?"

"Oh, nothing that would be of interest to most people. Just some random items from home." She took the bag and started pulling the contents out of it. The Janitor stopped her when she pulled out the notebook.

"Ooh, that reminds me, I need to write down the itinerary for the next Brain Trust meeting." Rachel gave him a puzzled look but he ignored it. "Got a pen?"

"Yeah," she said, and after rummaging through the rest of the stuff in the bag she pulled out the one object that least resembled a writing utensil. "Here, use this."

The Janitor gave her a blank stare. "This is a spoon."

"Ah, but it's not just any spoon," she proclaimed, though it certainly looked like an ordinary spoon. It was standard size and made of plastic with a white base and metallic colored spoon attachment. Rachel proved her point, however, by pulling the spoon part off and attaching it to the other end, revealing a usable pen. The Janitor gasped in surprise.

"Spoon-pen!" he declared. He gently took the almost magical eating utensil from her, cradled it between his fingers and examined it carefully. "Incredible balance and precision!" The Janitor exclaimed. "It's practically perfect. And I didn't invent it!" he gave off an angry growl and a defeated motion. "How could I ever replicate such greatness?"

"You can have this one if you want," said Rachel in a gesture of good faith. "I've got about ten others at home." The Janitor looked over at her skeptically.

"Really?"

"Sure. I doubt it's even copyrighted. I'm sure you could make millions off it," she said, laughing a little.

"Oh I will make millions off it, you can be sure of that. But before I forget," he said, opening up a page in Rachel's notebook and writing the words 'Brain Trust Meeting: Today's Itinerary – Find new ways to capitalize on novelty pens'. He cleanly tore the sheet of paper out of the notebook and handed it back to her. "Thanks for this," he said before excitedly leaving the room as if he were a child who was just given an all day sucker. "Oh, and I can't guarantee what will happen, but I'm pretty sure of one thing: This is one gesture you won't regret." Rachel stared after him, pondering what those words could possibly mean. _That guy may have a few screws loose, but by goodness I think he's the only one who's helping me forget my own misery. _

A number of hours passed and Rachel was still thinking about her encounter with the enigmatic custodian when J.D reentered the room and was now accompanied by a new figure. J.D was looking at the newcomer excitedly and began to speak with increasing amounts of enthusiasm. "See, Perry! I told you! Just look at her chart! That IS her name!" Doctor Cox grumbled slightly in defeat.

"Fine, you win, Newbie. But if you make one more annoying little comment about how ah-ha-MAZingly adorable the word Hug is as a last name, or tell me that if you had that last name on Valentines day you would pass out Hershey's kisses to eh-eh-EVERYONE you know, or keep reminding me of just how lovely it would be if by some God-awful coincidence her mother's maiden name just happened to be Kiss, I swear Newbie with every fiber in my being I'm going to…"

"Kissinger, actually…"

The irate senior doctor and his protégé turned in the direction of the weak little voice that had just uttered those fateful words. Doctor Cox gave her an annoyed look. "What did you just say?"

Rachel immediately regretted speaking up, but continued anyway. "My mom's maiden name…was Kissinger." She looked up at them fearfully, but was temporarily reassured by J.D excited reaction.

"Really?! Aww that's AWESOME…"

"NEWBIE!" Doctor Cox then began to speak to J.D as if he were a hyperactive 10 year old who didn't know the meaning of the words 'self control' and as such spoke to him very slowly. "Now, let's tell her what we came to tell her, okay there, Melody?"

"Fine," J.D said in a defeated tone. "Still, you have to admit-"

Doctor Cox gave off an angry growl.

J.D took the hint and finally turned towards Rachel. "Alright, alright. Miss Hug, I'm afraid you have-"

Just then the fearful and disgruntled figures that were Rachel's parents entered the room. Doctor Cox and J.D turned to look at them. Rachel could only look down in despair.

"Ah, you must be the girl's parents. I'm Doctor Cox." He stepped forward and stuck out his hand in greeting.

"Chris Hug. And this is my wife Mary." Rachel's father also stepped forward, stuck out his own hand and shook Dr. Cox's.

"Pleasure to meet you lovely people," Dr. Cox said casually. "Your daughter has become the talk of the hospital."

Chris looked over at his daughter suspiciously. "She has?"

Rachel was shocked. _I have? _

"Yeah she has!" said J.D, finally choosing to speak up. "For one thing, her last name is-"

"That's enough, Tina!" J.D instantly shut up at this admonishment. Dr. Cox continued.

"Yes, she has. And as such I came in here to talk to her myself. You see, her test results came back, and I'm afraid she has-"

Both Rachel and her parents leaned in to hear the shocking news that left Mary weeping, Chris unable to look at anyone, Rachel in deep despair, and J.D with nothing to say for the first time since he had discovered that the word Hug could mean more than just a sign of affection.

**There you go. I hope you are enjoying it so far. Please review! Thanks :)**


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